1. Technical Field
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a group of devices providing services to a client computer on a network, and more specifically, to systems and methods for classifying the devices from the viewpoint of energy utilization efficiency or the operating efficiency of each of the devices and indicating the classifications to the client computer.
2. Description of Related Art
In a typical modern office environment, office devices such as printers, scanners, copiers, or facsimiles are connected to a local area network, and each network user can freely select and use the devices. The user can freely select services provided by the devices according to the user's convenience. For example, in a case where the user prints a document, when a printer is occupied by a preceding job for a long time, the user can appropriately select another printer in a job wait state and cause the other printer to print the document.
However, such a usage pattern in which much discretion is given to users in selecting office devices may not be preferable from the viewpoint of overall energy utilization efficiency of an office. For example, a case can be easily imagined where competition among many users in selecting a high-speed printer in an office decreases the utilization efficiency of other medium-speed and low-speed printers and causes an increase in power consumption due to continuous operation of the high-speed printer.